New gym opens in Pontiac

Thursday

Oct 11, 2012 at 2:55 PMOct 11, 2012 at 3:01 PM

Cynthia Grau

Pontiac is the home of a new gym started by a nationally qualified figure competitor and her bodybuilder fiancé.M.A.D. Fitness opened Sept. 17 in a portion of the old chair factory at 611 E. North St., and owners and operators Megan Finkler and AJ Dwyer have brought their passion for healthy living to a level that helps people of all ages and fitness levels.“We designed a six-week program. It is a full body workout. To say what we do is kind of hard because every day is different. We have people from all different backgrounds, shapes, sizes and fitness levels that come here. They do their warm-ups and we’ll have a workout laid out for them. We usually incorporate some kind of strength training like lifting for the first portion, and then we’ll do a cardio class at the end,” Dwyer explained.Finkler added, “We do the workouts on a day-to-day basis, so we’ll sit down the night before and write the workout for the next day so it’s always changing.”What makes the couple’s training different from any other gym is how they keep workouts personal with all of their clients.“We’re always quick to remember names, which is one of the things people say they enjoy most — how we keep it personal with them. We’re not here for the money. We don’t charge very much. We’re just here because this is what we love to do. We love seeing people getting involved and starting to enjoy fitness,” Dwyer said.“It’s good that we know them well enough to know that if we’re doing high knees and someone has bad knees or is overweight and can’t jump up and do the exercise yet, we have something to modify for every single workout. People don’t always have that variation and sometimes give up. Or, with a one-on-one trainer, they may just take a break. We push until they’re tired,” Finkler added.The couple, who is engaged to be married very soon, both work full-time jobs and run this gym in their spare time.“We both work full-time and we do this at the end of our day. We both have a passion for this, in helping people reach their goals and it’s great to see it happen,” she said.“We make it fun, which is the best thing. People enjoy coming back here,” Dwyer said.Currently, both of their classes are just past the halfway point. Registration for the next session will begin Oct. 26 and classes will start Nov. 5.“We have two groups, a Monday-Wednesday-Thursday group and a Tuesday-Thursday group and both classes have all different skill levels. We have a saying, ‘Number of reps doesn’t count. The only number that matters is 100 percent.’ Everybody in here is doing the same exact thing, but only at their own levels,” Dwyer said. “At the same time, we’re pretty good about when someone’s trying to slack and we’ll make sure they’re pushing themselves until they can’t push anymore. Sometimes they get frustrated during the workout, but afterwards, they are happy they got through it. That’s what you’re here for. We’re going to make sure you get results.”Some people feel intimidated when they think about joining a gym, but Dwyer and Finkler have rules to follow when joining their program.“We are very strict on the fact that if someone is bad-mouthing another person, they’re out. It’s never happened here,” Dwyer said. “In the classes here, everyone gets along so well and they’re always laughing, except for when they’re going hard in a cardio session. We really push the high-motivation, high-positive energy because you have to have it. If you’re going to make a life change like that, you have to have that positive energy around you.”The results that the first class is showing is already proving the program’s success.“You have to really push yourself every time you come here. It will never be easy and as we go on, we amp up the volume, so I think some were expecting it to get easier for them. But they enjoy it because they come to us saying that their clothes are fitting better and their confidence is up so much,” Dwyer said.M.A.D Fitness can be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/mad.fitness3, which includes updated information on programs, along with pictures of the gym. The couple can also be reached via e-mail at mad.fitness3-@gmail.com.